Day and Night Stories
Algernon Blackwood
eBook
(, June 18, 2014)
âJe suis la première au rendez-vous. Je vous attends.âAs he got out of the train at the little wayside station he remembered the conversation as if it had been yesterday, instead of fifteen years agoâand his heart went thumping against his ribs so violently that he almost heard it. The original thrill came over him again with all its infinite yearning. He felt it as he had felt it thenânot with that tragic lessening the interval had brought to each repetition of its memory. Here, in the familiar scenery of its birth, he realised with mingled pain and wonder that the subsequent years had not destroyed, but only dimmed it. The forgotten rapture flamed back with all the fierce beauty of its genesis, desire at white heat. And the shock of the abrupt discovery shattered time. Fifteen years became a negligible moment; the crowded experiences that had intervened seemed but a dream. The farewell scene, the conversation on the steamerâs deck, were clear as of the day before. He saw the hand holding her big hat that fluttered in the wind, saw the flowers on the dress where the long coat was blown open a moment, recalled the face of a hurrying steward who had jostled them; he even heard the voicesâhis own and hers:[2] âYes,â she said simply; âI promise you. You have my word. Iâll waitââââTill I come back to find you,â he interrupted.Steadfastly she repeated his actual words, then added: âHere; at homeâthat is.ââIâll come to the garden gate as usual,â he told her, trying to smile. âIâll knock. Youâll open the gateâas usualâand come out to me.âThese words, too, she attempted to repeat, but her voice failed, her eyes filled suddenly with tears; she looked into his face and nodded. It was just then that her little hand went up to hold the hat onâhe saw the very gesture still. He remembered that he was vehemently tempted to tear his ticket up there and then, to go ashore with her, to stay in England, to brave all oppositionâwhen the siren roared its third horrible warning ... and the ship put out to sea.